


Watership Down

by polandspringz



Category: gen:LOCK (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, You'll understand by the end, but it is very sad no comfort this time, gen:LOCK Team, sort of character death?, they are not prominent/the main characters so i'm not tagging them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 15:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18252308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: Based on the prompt "Am I Going to Die?" Requested on tumblr.





	Watership Down

“Say, Valentina…” 

Blood ran cold inside their body as the soft hand came up to their face, missing a few times before finding their cheek and settling on it, fingers tracing towards her lips like spider crawling across. Her body was so warm, it was usually too warm, so why was the skin pressed against their face turning icey so quickly.

“Dr. Jha,” Valentina dared not look down, fearful of what they would do if they saw the child’s green eyes stricken with fear but glazing over, if the sensation running over their numb hand would turn wet and hot, “Why isn’t the Re-Gen working?”

“It’s the nanotech, it’s interfering-”

“I thought we had the code to block it? Cammie-”

The girl in question coughed just as Valentina barked out their words. Normally Valentina would have no problem scolding the girl to her face, but they couldn’t look at them. They kept their gaze locked on the floor behind and above her head, there was blood matted in her hair, they switched to looking towards the Re-Gen machine where Dr. Jha’s feet were, they could see the twitching muscles from Cammie’s torn up arm spasming-

“Valentina…” Cammie tried through her hacking, her lungs struggling to suck in air as the vaporized nanotech had drilled its way through them and then vanished, “It was a new type… I wasn’t in the Holon so I couldn’t decipher it as quickly as last time-”

“Shut up!” They practically screamed down at her, but they wouldn’t look, they refused to look. This couldn’t be happening.

“We can get her onto life support quickly if we put her brain in the Holon. It’s the safest way to keep her alive while figuring out how to remove the nano.” Dr. Jha turned to face them as she signalled for the rest of her team to come in and extract Cammie from Valentina. Hands came up and hers slipped away, and suddenly Valentina could see her. She could see all the damage that had been done while they were fighting the battle, leaving Cammie alone with Caliban in the airship, unprepared and defenseless for the nanotech that had flanked the ship while they were kilometers away on the ground defending another base or some holding line that didn’t even matter anymore to Valentina. 

When they heard the screams coming through their feed, Valentina had raced back to the ship, ready to blow the whole thing open when her blood curdling cries had grown in intensity. But they saw Cammie had run out of the ship and dragged the nanotech with her, sacrificing herself to keep it away from their bodies resting inside. Valentina had wanted to go after her right away, but through her shrieks, she told them to stay back, and Yasamin and Chase had to hold Kazu and them still as they watched Cammie continue to race away from the cloud. Her sprint eventually fell into a limp until Valentina was about ready to strangle all the other Pilots in the mindframe to chase after the girl, but when the girl collapsed and the cloud seemed to overtake her, small wave of green light then shot out over the area, stopping a few ways before them. The Holons were unharmed, but the sickening realization dawned on Valentina as they watched the nanotech explode into the air and Cammie collapse into the dirt. As they raced to her, all connection to her was gone. All the gadgets she wore, all the feeds and displays, they were vanished. Valentina couldn’t get through to a single one. 

They had rushed back to RTASA, Valentina abandoning their Holon as they dashed into the main lab with Cammie limp in their arms. Now, as she was pulled away from them, they could see their eyes were shut, and blood was leaking down where tears should’ve been. The computerized contacts had exploded. Valentina covered their mouth and tried not to gasp.

“Where am I going? Where did Valentina… Where’s Kazoo? Yaz? Chase?!” Camme was thrashing about, screaming as her one good arm flailed about, hitting the scientists as they rushed to get her on a stretcher and back to where the ESU had been set up in the building. Valentina jumped to their feet when they saw Cammie’s hand pause on someone’s face again, realization dawning on them once more as they took in the mangled state of Cammie’s bunny ears.

“We’ll get her uploaded as fast as possible- Valentina!” Dr. Jha reached out after as they shoved the doctors out of the way, grabbing the good hand and pressing the fingers to their lips as they spoke as slowly and clearly as they could.

“It’s Valentina. We are going to upload you. I will meet you in the mindframe.”

Valentina was shoved out of the way but followed on their heels to the pods, yelling at them to be gentle as they rushed to get Cammie inside. Valentina sent the order to Caliban to start the upload, and even though the suit was likely fried too, they prayed that Cammie would still be able to connect. They wanted to wait to see the symbols on the display turn to gen:LOCK, but Yasamin appeared behind and urged them inside.

“You’re going to meet her right? Don’t leave her scared and frightened. I’ll manage things here.”

Valentina could hardly nod as Yasamin pushed them into the pod, everything around them feeling dazed and hazy as their adrenaline seemed to keep spiking but with nothing new to react to or fight. The next thing they knew, the pod was sealing closed above them, and they were dropped into the darkness.

“Valentina? Valentina, please-!”

Val opened their eyes and saw Cammie’s figure on the floor, almost pinned down as they searched for others in the imaginary space. They swam towards her, extending a hand out.

“Cammie!” 

It was such a blessing to see the girl with her eyes open, her body not bleeding, broken in half, and eaten away at several areas by the bombs and little virus that had tried to invade her. Val swore that when they finally found the creator of those things, they were going to-

“Val, I... my body I can’t…”

Their eyes widened as they realized her words, pulling their hand back as they floated down to touch down beside her. Very quickly, they knelt down, and pulled the girl into their lap like they had done on the floor of the Re-Gen machine.

“Your body will be fine. Dr. Jha will figure out how to fix it. We will get you back in it in no time.”

“Don’t lie to me,” the girl whispered as Val propped them up against their arm, allowing the girl to sit up, “I felt it happening. I was getting the EMP out but then my other arm was going and then it was inside me and I was trying so hard and-”

“Hush, little bunny.” Val adjusted their hold and embraced Cammie in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground so they both could float in the colorful space.

“I’m guessing I’m paralyzed in here until I get a new suit,” she joked, and Val tried to smile, but Cammie seemed pained when they saw it, and looked away. Val reached out and tried to turn her head back to face them.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Val focusing on keeping them afloat in the watery void, while also maintaining on a much quieter level their fear and bubbling thoughts. They refused to let any of their fears to reach Cammie. Then, Dr. Jha’s voice cut through the mindframe:

“Valentina, we successfully uploaded Cammie. We will be removing her body now.”

“Val, you were already uploaded for so long. You must be close to burning through uptime. You don’t… You don’t have to stay-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Listen, you need me here, and I don’t want to have to go back out there and deal with Kazu, Yasamin, and Chase bugging me about-”

“Val,” Cammie talked over Val, taking a deep breath of nothing as she prepared herself not to cry, “Am I going to die?”

 

She hated herself when she saw the emotions that slapped across Val’s face. She was tormenting them with the question, but she needed to know the truth.

“Camme, what are you-”

“They’re moving my body out of the pod. I think they did it as soon as you got in, which was why I couldn’t move.”

“No, Cammie, they’re just going to try and remove the nanotech and then put you in the Re-Gen again-”

“So we already tried to Re-Gen once? So that was what was going on when you were yelling about the nanotech.”

She laughed, but it was dry and cracked, her voice going quiet at the end and her eyes casting down as she let Val guide their hands together so that Cammie was holding them. She couldn’t move her muscles, and if Val left, she would certainly just float to the bottom of this expanse, waiting until the next person uploaded to speak with her. She glanced over, catching a blue light flickering in the distance. She blinked it over.

“Val, you need to go.”

“Cammie, no, I won’t leave you alone here-”

“I’m not going to be alone. It’ll be fine, and besides, once you guys build me a new suit, I’ll be back to my usual self! I can decode the nanotech much easier in here anyway!”

She cocked her head and gave Val her best smile, only being able to move from the neck up did not give her as much expression as she would’ve liked to have, especially not without her bunny ears flicking about. She saw a yellow and a red light dance about closer. She blinked at them too.

Val thought that they had left behind tears when they joined up the resistance. They had seen bodies of friends, held lovers and family members alike as they bleed out in their arms, but for some reason, holding Cammie here, supporting Cammie like this as they drifted, something became unhinged.

Then another set of hands were coming up and helping Cammie push Val back, and then two more were yanking them away, separating the green and purple pilots as they drifted away from one another. Val was dragged to the surface, and Cammie was floating down, Chase’s hand curled around her wrists as they both reached towards where they had pushed Val, Cammie hands and fingers extended as if giving her the option to swim back down and take ahold of them.

“It’s okay, I’ll be okay.”

“Cammie, Cammie, no- both of you, get off of me!” They jerked about in Yasamin and Kazu’s hold, and Kazu had to swim around and wrap their arm around Valentina’s neck to get them to stop resisting.

“Goodbye, Val.” Cammie beamed just as Val reached the surface.

When Dr. Jha came by to alert them that they weren’t able to re-generate Cammie’s body, and her vital organs had collapse, Valentina thought the nanotech must have fried their brain too. Nothing, colors, shapes, words, nothing made sense anymore.

Yasamin and Kazu both put a hand around the distraught pilot, trying to offer words of comfort. It didn’t help.

“You’ll still be able to see her hologram, and talk to her in the mindframe,” Yasamin tried, “I’ve already been doing it for years with Chase-”

Valentina shoved both pilots away, and stormed off. RTASA was gigantic, smaller than the Anvil, but still too damn big, and Valentina just wanted to be back in Europe or the Ether, compressed between people on a small club dancefloor, with their mind cloudy for a different reason.

Instead, Valentina found a dark corner behind some robot, an artificial crawl space that would keep them hidden long enough that no one would bother them. They pulled the hood of their cloak over their head and ducked behind the green and white digitigrade legs and slumped down. 

As the hours passed, Valentina’s voice got more and more raw, but they knew they could close the dam, not now, not yet. It wouldn’t close until Cammie came running through that door with Nugget on her shoulder or her rabbit ears twitching or her arms spread wide as she yelled about something new she had uncovered with the Doc’s brain in Caliban. At least it felt that way, but even Valentina knew that by the time Kazu or Yasamin came to drag them out of this spot too, that their tears would have long since dried up, and they would be left with only an itchy face and a sore throat to show for it. They never had been that loud of a crier either, but every hiccup, every suppressed sob that shook their body sent them another wave of cramps and spasms from their abdomen as they deprived their body of air.

Valentina was drowning, and they wouldn’t stop until Cammie broke through the surface.


End file.
